Racism is as real as ever and Black lives have always mattered. However, most people, including many Blacks, deny or minimize the devastating effect of racism and tend to act as though somehow, Black lives are less valuable, even less sacred than white lives. The Black Lives Matter movement has the potential for strengthening sustainable unified Black leadership which would distinguish it from the many failed attempts to build a Black united front since the civil rights era. Hopefully, it will succeed, but remaining unapologetically Black is a daunting challenge and time will tell. ... read more »

My husband, Bill Cosby, was recently victimized by a malicious District Attorney and an equally vicious judge. This is not the first time that my husband has been persecuted by corrupt and self-serving politicians. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, Bill Cosby, along with hundreds of other people, was secretly and illegally harassed by a President of the United States. ... read more »

Public education continues to fail African American children with little public outcry and those who do protest strongly are often ostracized by the education establishment. Meanwhile, as has been the case for at least the past fifty years, there are no effective, sustained protests of the pervasive miseducation of Black children. This speaks volumes about Black leadership, in general, and educational leadership in particular. ... read more »

At its core, we support Measure W because of its impact on empowering African-Americans and other communities of color in Los Angeles County – making business pay their fair share for the clean water that Black and brown residents are most likely, otherwise, to be deprived of. Measure W is a progressive tax that spreads the compliance burden equally with no groups paying more than their fair share. ... read more »

California is in a massive housing crisis. Though housing prices vary across the state, housing affordability is a clear problem when resident income is compared to housing costs. In many cities, renters are paying over half of their income in housing costs, leaving very little to go towards anything else. Some 61 percent of renter households in California are lower-income, according to the California Department of housing and Community Development. ... read more »

African Americans cannot afford not to vote. We must vote for people who have our best interest in mind, heart and soul. We must vote for issues that advance the well-being of our families and communities. We can’t expect to win with every vote, but if we don’t vote, we can certainly expect to lose. ... read more »

Los Angeles has been hit hard by California’s housing crisis. A critical shortage in affordable housing is putting real economic pressure on families throughout the region, making it harder to find safe, affordable places to live and creating economic stress. ... read more »

There is so much damage done to memory and mission in our lives and to our sense of self by large and small conces­sions to the constant call to let go and move on re­gardless of what is lost or left behind. We sacrifice so much in our rush to for­get, stay in style or keep in harmony with the official writers and rulers of so­ciety. However, whatever we are and will become, we must give appropriate attention to our history, in spite of all the counsel from outside to forget the past, worship the present and forfeit our future for things embraced and en­joyed now. ... read more »

The racial conscious­ness and discourse of the West was forged on slave ships carrying human car­gos into the Caribbean and the Americas. The search for agricultural commodi­ties and profits from the ex­treme exploitation of Black people, deemed as less than human, gave birth to the notion of racial inequality. ... read more »

I have owned my own company for over a quarter of a century and during that time I have had the privilege of working with people from all walks of life who encompass every station imaginable on the ladder of leadership and responsibility. Experience has taught me that no matter where you may stand on the ladder, showing respect and common courtesies to another human being is not only the right thing to do, but also the best thing to do. My grandmother would say, if you were to fall down the ladder, you better have been kind to others so the person below you will catch you. ... read more »

Kanye Omari West: American rapper/singer/songwriter/record producer/ entrepreneur/fashion designer was born 1977 in Atlanta, raised in Chicago, Kanye first became known as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the early 2000s, producing hit singles for recording artists such as Jay-Z, Ludacris and Alicia Keys. ... read more »